Tape match dispenser and lighter



March 17, 1936.

w A. E. H. BARILI El AL TAPE MATCH DISPENSER AND LIGHTER Filed June 29,1932 INVENTORS:

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TH EIR ATTORNE Y' Patented Mar. 17, 1936 ATENT OFFICE Arthur E. H.Barili and Guglielmo It. Tremolada, Los Angeles, Calif.

Application June 29, 1932, Serial No. 619,938

8 Claims.

The present invention has relation to a match tape and to devices forholding, dispensing and lighting of such tape.

The matches in common use at the present day, are generally made inindividual sticks or in splints. To use such matches, it is necessary topick up or tear off each match individually and to strike its head on asuitable surface. Such matches, particularly the commonly used papersplint, are short, and, when held in the fingers to light a cigar,cigarette, or pipe, are very quickly consumed and frequently inflictburns on the fingers of the user or, at least, leave a black, sooty,unsightly mark on the finger-tips.

These, and many other disadvantages of the ordinary match are well-knownby all smokers, and many efforts have been made to develop some sort ofcheap and convenient device possessing the capacity of the match tofunction satisfactorily and being free from its disadvantages. The mostcommonly used device of this type comprises a container for aninflammable liquid, a wick, and means for igniting the liquid absorbedby the wick. Such devices are necessarily relatively expensive. They getout of order very easily. They are ill-smelling and quickly run dry, dueto the high, volatile character of the solution used.

The device herein described and claimed may be considered a compositestructure combining the advantages of the ordinary match with thedesirable features of the liquid lighter above referred. to, butpossessing none of the many disadvantageous features of such articles.35 Retaining the idea of using a match, the general object of ourinvention is to provide a tape made out of paper or other suitablematerial and having, along its surface, equidistant lumps of ignitionmaterial corresponding to the heads of the ordinary matches. Anotherobject is the provision of a suitable container fitted to hold a roll ofsuch match tape. A further object is the provision of means forprojecting measured 45 portions of tape from the tape roll within thecontainer. Another object is to provide means for igniting each matchlump of the tape as it shoots out of the container.

With these objects in view, our invention consists in the combinationsand advantageous features fully explained in the following descriptionand illustrated in the appended drawing, of which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a device embodying the invention, thefront plate or cover being removed in order to disclose the interiormechanism,

Fig. 2 is .a plan view of the device on a larger scale and with a partbroken away for the sake of clearness, 5

Fig. 3 is a sectional, end elevation taken substantially on line 33 ofFig. 1, in the direction of the arrow,

Fig, 4 illustrates a portion of the match tape proper, and 10 Fig. 5illustrates the simplified form of the device.

The numeral I denotes a shallow tray within which a cog wheel 2 ismounted for rotation, and it is positioned to mesh with propelling ele-15 ments 4 of a feed drum 3. The top rim of the tray is slit, and it isnoticed that a section of the cogs of the wheel 2 project beyond thetray through this slit.

The match tape is shown in Figs. 1 and 4 to comprise a strip 5 on whichare deposited lumps or spots of ignition material 6. In addition, thestrip is provided with equidistant perforations l, and theseperforations are spaced to register with a series of equidistantprojections or teeth 25 8 of the feed drum 3. The tape is, in the firstinstance, formed into a roll, and this roll is laid into the traywhereupon, the outer, free end of the tape is passed over the surface ofthe drum 3 permitting at least one of the teeth 8 to seat 30 in theperforations I. The outer end of the tape is, thereupon, passed througha slot 9 in the casing.

As above stated, the upper portion of the rim of the tray is slit toadmitthe upper portion of the cog wheel and this slitting is continuedacross the top of the tray, as a result of which,

a long, slender tongue I0 is provided, the outer end of which is shownshaped to ride on the periphery of the feed drum 3, and to curve outwardtherefrom to the edge of the casing. On the inner surface of thisoutwardly curved, end portion of the tongue is provided .a multiplicityof fine protrusions ll.

As above stated, thetape roll is first laid into 5 the tray and bentover the feed drum 3, and it is noted the ignition lumps are placed onthe inner curve of the roll, which is bent back over the feed drum tocause these lumps to project outwardly from the periphery of the drum.When, now, the cog wheel 2 is caused to revolve in the direction of thearrow l2, it is noticed that the drum 3 commences to revolve in theopposite direction, causing an ignition lump 6 to pass around theperiphery of the drum until the tongue I0 is reached and sufficientlyelevated to permit the lump to travel along the under side of the tongueand out through the slot 9. As the lump approaches this slot, it mustpass the protrusions l of the tongue. The friction developed, due to thescratching of these protrusions against the ignition lump, causes thesubstance of the lump to ignite as it passes out through the slot.

The device of our invention is, in Fig. 1, shown considerably enlarged.In actual practice, it is only about one-half the size and very thin, soas to fit conveniently within the vest pocket of a man, or the handbagof a woman. It is placed in the palm of the hand and gripped by thefingers, leaving the thumb free to partially rotate the cog wheel 2 and,as this wheel is very much larger than the intermeshing portion of. thefeed drum, it is noticed that a comparatively slow movement of the cogwheel will revolve the drum at a speed high enough to ignite theignition lumps on the scratch surface of the tongue.

Means should be provided to eifect a step by step rotation of the cogwheel of a length to project an ignition lump each time the wheel isrotated. In the drawing, this is shown accomplished merely by providinga series of equidistant perforations 13 in the cog wheel forregistration with a projection I4 of the tray. In this case, the cogwheel should be sufilciently resilient to slide over this projection andto snap back into line when a perforation l3 moves into registrationwith the projection, but, of course, more elaborate and sensitivedevices may be substituted. It is important, however, that theperforations I3 or their equivalents be correctly spaced to advance eachignition lump a predetermined distance each time the wheel is rotated,and the mechanism should be sensitive enough to permit the operator tofeel and to hear the click at the end of each movement of the wheel.

A projection l5 may conveniently be provided in the tray below the cogwheel 2, and this projection should seat in the center opening of thetape roll when the latter is placed within the tray. Without suchprojection, there is the danger that the roll might gradually become sobadly entangled within the tray that the device might fail to functionproperly, or the tape might break, but the stud is found to maintain theroll in position, and apparently to prevent such entanglement of thetape.

The structure hereinbefore described, is extremely simple and cheap tomake. It is capable of holding a relatively very large roll of tape and,as the ordinary match box, it is supposed to be thrown away when thetape has been used. As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the tray is closed by asuitable cover l6, having a flange l1 tightly fitting the rim of thetray, but a cover plate may, of course, be otherwise applied, ifdesired. No matter what kind of cover may be used, it is important tonote that all the mechanism is mounted within the tray, and that theonly function of the cover is to close the open face of the tray. Thisconstruction makes it very much easier and cheaper to assemble thedevice than it would be if the members of the combination were assembledpartly in the tray and partly in the cover.

For the sake of cheapness, the device should contain as few parts aspossible. It was first contemplated to employ merely a feed drum 20, asillustrated in Fig. 5, entirely eliminating the cog wheel 2. This drumis made with teeth 2| for registration with perforations 22 of the tape23. A resilient'tongue 24 made with a scratch surface 25 is mounted inthe casing 26 adjacent to the periphery of the feed drum. The operationof this simple device is no difierent from the foregoing, except that itis found difiicult to rotate the feed drum rapidly enough for the properignition of the match lump on the tape.

Where, on the other hand, more elaborate, expensive, and ornamentaldevices are desired, it is, of course, possible to substitute amechanically much more refined structure without departing from thescope of the combination as set forth in the following claims.

We claim:

1. A casing, a match tape seated within the casing and provided with aseries of equidistant ignition lumps and intermediate equidistantperforations, a feed drum having a series of equidistant peripheralprojections registering with the perforations of said tape, manual meansfor rotating said drum to project said tape from the casing, means foryieldingly limiting the forward movement of the drum so as to projectthe tape step by step equal predetermined distances, and meansengageable by the lumps of the tape for igniting the substance of saidlumps as they pass out of the casing.

2. A casing, a feed drum mounted to revolve within the casing and madewith equidistant peripheral projections, a match tape seated within thecasing and shaped for engagement by said projections to project the tapefrom the casing, means manually operable from without the casing forrotating said drum, means for yieldingly determining the length ofmovement of said manual rotating means, lumps of ignition materialdeposited on said tape and equidistantly spaced to correspond with themeasured movement of said manual operating means, and means for ignitingeach ignition lump as it is projected out of the casing.

3. A casing, a roll of match tape within the casing having a series ofspaced ignition lumps, a feed drum having equidistant projectionengaging perforations of said tape for projecting said tape from thecasing, manually operable means extending through a slot in the casingfor rotating said feed drum in steps of uniform length, means forigniting each lump of the tape as it is projected out of the casing, andmeans for guiding said roll of tape within the casing.

4. A casing, a feed drum within the casing, a match tape within thecasing and provided with a series of ignition lumps, said feed drumhaving peripheral projections for. engaging said v tape to project thelatter out of the casing, a relatively large disk mounted to revolveWithin the casing and having a portion extending beyond the casing forpartial manual rotation, said disk being shaped to engage members ofsaid drum to rotate the latter at relatively high speed, and means foryieldingly arresting said disk at the end of each partial rotation.

5. A casing, a relatively small feed drum in said casing, a relativelylarge wheel mounted in the casing to rotate said drum at relatively highspeed, thesaid wheel having a portion of its periphery extending beyondthe casing for partial manual rotation, a match tape seated within thecasing and bent over the said drum, said tape being shaped for.engagement by equidistant peripheral projections of the said drum toproject the tape from the casing as the wheel is given a partial uniformrotation, a series of equidistant ignition lumps' deposited on saidtape,

means for igniting each lump as it is projected out of the casing, meansfor yieldingly measuring the partial movement of said wheel tocorrespond to the distance between the said lumps, and means for guidingthe tape within the casmg.

6. A casing, a feed drum mounted to revolve in said casing, a relativelylarge cog wheel rotatable within the casing and having a portion of itsperiphery projecting through the casing for partial manual rotation, thesaid drum being shaped for engagement by the cogs of said wheel to berevolved at relatively high speed, a roll of match tape within thecasing and having its free end bent over said drum, said tape being madewith a series of equidistant ignition lumps, a resilient member on saidcasing and having a scratch surface for engagement by the lumps of saidtape as they pass out of the casing, means for yieldingly measuring thepartial rotation of said cog wheel to correspond to the distance betweenthe said tape lumps, and means for guiding the tape within the casing.

'7. A tray, a roll of tape within the tray and made with equidistantignition lumps, a feed drum mounted to revolve within the tray, saiddrum having equidistant peripheral projections engaging said tape forprojecting the free end of the tape through a slot in the tray rim, ahandwheel in the tray for rotating said drum at relatively high speed,said hand-wheel having equidistant perforations engageable by a memberof said tray yieldingly to limit the rotation of the wheel to turn saiddrum distances equal to the distance between said ignition lumps, saidwheel having a portion of its periphery projecting through a slot in therim of the tray for manual partial rotation, the portion of the rimwhich has been separated to produce said slot being bent to form atongue the outer end of which is provided with a scratch surfacepositioned in the path of movement of the lumps on the tape as they areprojected out of the tray, and a cover for closing the open face of thetray.

8. A casing, a feed drum mounted in the casing with a portion of itsperiphery projecting through an opening in the casing and provided withequidistant peripheral projections, a resilient tongue having a scratchsurface resting on the drum periphery at said opening, a tape freelyseatable in the casing, said tape having perforations for registrationwith said projections and provided with equidistant ignition lumpsintermediate said perforations, and means for positively advancing saidtape in uniform steps equal to the distance between said perforations.

ARTHUR E. H. BARILI. GUGLIELMO R. TREMOLADA.

